Planning on building myself a bowfishing deck for the new rig and since I've never had one before I thought asking what y'all like or don't like about your decks. Thinking about making it a little larger than the front deck so the lights are angled about 45' to the water, anybody done this before? Planning on going with 6-9 led floods for lighting.

In my opinion a deck is just extra unnecessary weight cost etc...

I prefer to shoot from a boat that only has a knee high rail around the existing front deck to mount the lights under.

Good luck on your build
R

if you are doing the majority of your shooting at night you do not need to be elevated. The elevation only helps during the day when you are looking to cut glare.

I plan on doing both since a lot of bodies of water are pretty clear up here, which is why I wanted the deck to elevate me about 12in.

ok, if that's the case id suggest no higher than 12" off the rails of your boat. I have owned 3 bowfishing rigs to date and have tried elevated and flush. With an 1854 boat you are getting a little narrow to elevate and still keep the boat balanced. Especially since (I'm assuming) your boat has low sides like most mud rigs do.

It doesn't take a whole lot of work to build a removable deck that sits on your current deck, and braces off the floor of the boat. You can have the lights mount under the deck. Its nice to have them below deck so your line doesn't get caught in the housings, also helps to keep some of the bugs a little lower. I wouldn't go more than 3-5" extended past the edge of your boat for stability reasons. You could slap a bunch of 50w LEDs on there and run a small genny in the back and have one heck of a rig.

Defintely no more than 12" elevation, deck will probably be about 4x6 should be just enough to get the lights over the water, Sides are 22" so not to low. Thinking it will be 9-11 50w LED's in warm white but I'm hoping to go with batteries for noise reduction (every major water source near me is covered in expensive homes) and since I won't be fishing any tourneys.
Should pretty simple to put together, planning to make it out of aluminum and welding it myself. I'm thinking of using 2x2's for the frame and a 1/8 sheet for the top. Also what about putting the trolling motor on the deck vs on the boat? (Foot controled)

If it's foot controlled just put a couple threaded inserts into the deck surface on the elevated deck and mount the pedal on top with a couple small bolts when you're bowfishing. No second trolling motor mount needed, no need to hassle with moving it etc, one less thing to trip on too.